The confected outrage from some teachers who predictably emerged from the woodwork frothing at the mouth in high dudgeon was palpable: these figures failed to account for small Year 12 class sizes and the inclusion of part-time and ancillary staff!
Research indicates class size has little to do with effective learning. If the school does not have a culture of discipline and respect for teachers and students, then class size will not matter.
Every planned decrease in class sizes will mean significant increases in education budgets. Some fail to understand the link between class sizes and budgets. Exactly how much money do we want to spend on education and when will there be consensus about the ideal number in a class?
Should we spend much more to reduce class sizes and not spend as much on health care and much needed infrastructure?
These issues are rarely understood and rationally debated.
I have yet to read a single commentator who has advocated exactly what is the magical class size maximum that will enable more effective teaching and learning outcomes.
Let's pluck a figure out of the irrational air and regulate that no class be more than 10 students. This would mean employing thousands more teachers when there are already not enough to staff existing needs.
Like money spent on Indigenous welfare, governments have increased education budgets over many years. There is certainly a case for challenging how effective this expenditure has been.
Spending millions more recruiting more teachers to fill the gaps generated by capping class sizes would arguably make little difference in tackling the endemic cancers bedeviling our education system.
This assumes money grows on trees or the educational well is indeed bottomless. Ironically, the significant increases in education funding over the years by both parties in government have actually reaped a decline in standards.
There is an argument that suspending government grants to all but the poorest private schools would boost the government coffers and allow funding of more special needs teachers and teacher aids, as well as administrative assistance to allow teachers more time to focus on teaching.
But does anyone seriously believe all the dysfunctionality in our education system would be resolved if we cut class sizes? Only the simple minded believe that complicated systemic problems can be resolved by a simple silver bullet solution.
Would literacy and numeracy standards suddenly improve? Would parents and students stop abusing principals and teachers? Would teachers who are leaving in droves suddenly return, rejoicing that they now would have less marking and reports to write? Would our most academically successful Year 12 graduates flock to university education courses when they discover the system has a few students less in each class?
Like rubbery statistics about class sizes, arguments about their significance are baseless and overblown.
Our education system is moribund and in need of radical repair and class sizes are the least of our worries.
